World's First 3 Generation-Compatible HD DVD Drive

[James Fee]

http://www.physorg.com/news2440.html

"In general, HD DVD employs blue LDs with shorter than conventional wavelength as its light source to enable higher recording density. In order to realize compatibility with current discs, such as CDs and DVDs, a large number of parts are required resulting in a large-sized drive. To date this has been one of the major challenges to overcome. NEC's new development realizes a small, slim HD DVD drive, which can read and write 3-generations of optical discs, HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs, with a single optical head. NEC will continue advancing and accelerating its development toward commercialization of the HD DVD drive, in turn contributing to the spread of the HD DVD format."



The more and more I read about HD DVD and Blue-Ray, the more I have to question how quick the adoption will be. The work to overcome what would seem to be such simple procedures such as reading existing media could cost quite a bit. Even though we had the hassle of DVD +/- R, one was always able to read existing CDs on those drives. If Sony or Toshiba can figure out the cheapest and easier to produce way of reading all types of disks, they will be in the drivers seat.

[James Fee]

http://www.physorg.com/news2440.html

"In general, HD DVD employs blue LDs with shorter than conventional wavelength as its light source to enable higher recording density. In order to realize compatibility with current discs, such as CDs and DVDs, a large number of parts are required resulting in a large-sized drive. To date this has been one of the major challenges to overcome. NEC's new development realizes a small, slim HD DVD drive, which can read and write 3-generations of optical discs, HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs, with a single optical head. NEC will continue advancing and accelerating its development toward commercialization of the HD DVD drive, in turn contributing to the spread of the HD DVD format."



The more and more I read about HD DVD and Blue-Ray, the more I have to question how quick the adoption will be. The work to overcome what would seem to be such simple procedures such as reading existing media could cost quite a bit. Even though we had the hassle of DVD +/- R, one was always able to read existing CDs on those drives. If Sony or Toshiba can figure out the cheapest and easier to produce way of reading all types of disks, they will be in the drivers seat.

[Philip Colmer]

... and we haven't even started on consumer writeable drives :lol:.

Well, here's to an interesting 2005 .

--Philip

[mcsouth]

:confused totally: Given the current directions that the different groups are going, what are the odds that we will ever see the CDRW/DVD+R/RW DL/DVD-R/RW DL/DVD-RAM/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drive? (I'm sure I probably missed some format in all of that...)

With any luck, it would burn Sony's UMD discs too! :lol:

[EricMCarson]

You most likely won't see a BluRay drive that is compatible with HD-DVD. The two camps detest each other like nothing else. What will drive adoption rate is not computer hardware drives like this one, but new content (honestly, how many times can you buy the same movie over and over again for upgraded video quality, particularly if you just got done "upgrading" it from VHS to DVD). HD-DVD has the lead on this mode of the market by signing up far more Hollywood and independent studios than BluRay (at this time, I believe, just Sony). HD-DVD and BluRay are both designed to rewritable formats from the get-go with both having a form of write/copy protection built into the hardware layer of the disc itself. It appears that HD-DVD has quite a lead built on BluRay (particularly since BluRay just in November '04 changed their manufacturing process to include an anti-scratch coating to avoid having to use sleeves, which would have never worked). The smart money would once again be on a widespread adoption of a non-Sony format.